


Step Into My Candy Store

by SweetToothSugarKiss



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, I Don't Even Know, M/M, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 04:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5483069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetToothSugarKiss/pseuds/SweetToothSugarKiss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Camden Academy of Academics and Performing Arts. A leading mixed school from the age of 11 to 18, found in the heart of North London. We pride ourselves on being both an academic school leading at least ninety percent of our graduates to Oxford or Cambridge, and for being one of the top performing arts schools in the country, either leading students into further education around the world or straight into a professional working environment.</p><p> Or the one where Harry is in year 11 and is headboy of the leading Academic and Performing Arts school in London and Louis is the year above in the first year of sixth form and is studying drama.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Year

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go! My first ever Larry fic... hope you enjoy it :)

Chapter One

At age six, Harry Styles decided he wanted to be a singer when he grew up. At age seven, Harry Styles started singing lessons. At age eleven, Harry Styles- along with his mum, Anne, and older sister, Gemma- moved to London.

  
At age fifteen, Harry Styles was the most popular boy at school. He had the looks, the tattoos (that his mother wasn’t all that pleased with), the brains. But most importantly Harry Styles had the talent. Unlike most schools, the social food chain at Camden Academy of Academics and Performing Arts doesn’t care about what sports team you’re on, or if you have a lot of money. The real question was, “Are you talented?” Of course, sport requires talent, but it wasn’t that interesting when you’re in central London and the most anyone does is play a bit of football. People wanted to know if you could draw, dance, act, play a musical instrument or sing. That was Harry’s forte. Singing. Harry Styles with his deep voice, and his “I’m not going to follow gender norms” attitude with his long flowing locks and painted nails.

  
Of course he was the first boy Louis noticed when he moved to CAAPA for sixth form, he was squashed into the main hall for the first whole school assembly of the year. It was weird, usually when you enter an assembly hall there are rows and rows of chairs with students sat in school uniforms looking bored. Not here, here there were no chairs, with students standing around with their friends wearing their own clothing- it wasn’t a school like any other.   
The headmistress, Ms KitCatt (I know, only here could you get away with that name) stood on the stage and welcomed everyone into the new year from old students to the new ones joining them in years 7 and 12.

  
“And now,” she started as the hall came to silence once again, buzzing with anticipation “I would like to welcome back… White Eskimo!” the lights dim as she leaves the stage and screams erupt from the crowd.

  
It isn’t what Louis expects from a first assembly, he thought it was going to be boring, he wasn’t expecting a group of boys including a blonde Irish boy Louis knew from his tutor group called Niall Horan to walk onto the stage as the curtains were pulled back to reveal a drum kit, amps and microphones.   
They sang ‘Summer of ’69’ and for a group of teenage boys on a Monday morning, they were full of energy.   
“Hello!” the tall boy with long curly hair called into his mic “How are we?” to that he received screams from the students as they gathered around the stage.  
“That’s good! For those of you who don’t know that’s Niall” he says pointing to the blonde boy who takes a dramatic bow “that’s Ed,” pointing to the ginger boy with a guitar and his left arm looking like he dunked it in a pot of paint, “That’s Cara” throwing a hand over his shoulder to the drummer, a slender girl with blonde hair and thick eyebrows. “And I’m Harry. And we are White Eskimo!” The school erupted into cheers as they left the stage and the lights came back up just as the first-period bell rang.

“Yo, Tommo!” Louis turned around just as he got to the sixth form garden to see Niall running after him. “What did you think then?”   
“Was not expecting that! I thought it was supposed to be an assembly” Louis said laughing.   
“What are assemblies like where you’re from?” Barbra, Niall’s girlfriend, asked as she linked hands with the blonde.   
“I don’t know… like we all have to wear school uniforms,” the two scrunched up their noses at that “and we have to sit in rows in the same section as our year group and the same side as our form group. It’s usually really boring, every now and then we give out awards for sports.”   
They walked through the arch that led them into the garden, it was a piece of beauty in a concrete jungle, with an old mulberry tree in the centre and tables and benches surrounding it.   
“This school is definitely something else.”  
…  
Harry walks through the campus to his first class, which, of course has to be PE. He doesn’t mind it really, it’s a good way to release energy after performing, even if it was only to the school and only one song. He walks past a group of girls in the year below as they giggle, he waves and smiles at them, always the gentlemen.   
During the summer the teenager had quite the dramatic growth spurt, meaning not only did he have to completely change his wardrobe, to his mother’s dismay, but he still wasn’t all that steady. Okay, he was a hazard. His friends said he reminded them of a baby giraffe, not knowing exactly where his limbs were, so sport went from being fun to being a bit of a disaster.

  
As well as being the ever so talented Mr Styles, he was also head boy for the main school which meant he had to organise events from fundraisers to talent shows.   
He walked around with a black leather planner in his hand, which was already full with bits of paper and important dates throughout the year. If you looked inside, you would see dates scribbled down and then crossed out as they needed to make space for something important, notes telling Harry he needed to speak in this or that assembly, first drafts of posters and tickets for events such as the school plays, musicals, music gigs, talent shows. These dates had been pencilled in since June, their last head boy and girl team meeting before the summer, it was vital he kept it with him at all times.

  
Being in main school has its ups and downs, he still had to go to regular classes which weren’t music or arts based, had to deal with the ‘trendies’- a group of rich snobby, cold boys and girls who all dressed the same, all were there for the academic side of the school rather than the artsy side. The people, in Harry’s opinion, who had no desirable personality. They would ignore younger students, especially The Arts students, thinking they were better than them because they were a shoe in for oxford or Cambridge or UCL.

  
His friends, on the other hand, were much more interesting, they were always up for a laugh and would speak to anyone and everyone, no matter if they were academic or arts, that’s probably why they usually got onto the head boy and girl team, they were much more willing to stand up for what they believe in, listen to what the school had to say and of course, put on the best charity days and talent shows the school had ever seen.   
This year was going to be busy, what with his exam schedule, head boy duties and band rehearsals. Not that Harry minded, it kept him occupied, kept him out of trouble.

 

 

* * *

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	2. Pink Day Palooza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Camden Academy of Academic and Performing Arts would like to welcome you to their annual Pink Day!
> 
> Or the one where Harry and Cara cause havoc throughout CAAPA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a late Christmas present for you! (or if you don't celebrate the festive season here's a present for you anyway!) Hope you're having a good winter break! 
> 
> Harry is studying Music Performance but still has to do his GCSEs, also he has tattoos because when I was in year 11 there were girls with tattoos at the beginning of the year and they were well done tbh… Louis is doing a BTEC Level 3 Drama and Theatre Arts course, this means he doesn’t have to do any other A Levels (I am from London and I did a BTEC Level 3 in Musical Theatre so I (kinda) know what I’m on about…Hopefully.

_Chapter Two_

 The first term went by in a bit of a blur for Louis, it was filled with laughter and classes. He and Niall became almost joined at the hip, both having a warped sense of humour.   
It had taken him about a week to work out the campus and where all his classes were in correlation to one another, even though the school was very well known, it was very small. In the main school there’s only 600 students and only 280 in the 6th form. Very competitive and extremely hard to get into.

Louis was lucky, the boy from Doncaster had won an Arts scholarship for theatre. He wasn’t academic, hated sitting in a classroom. He found he got fidgety if he had to sit still for too long unless he was doing something he enjoyed, and even then technical rehearsals were the bane of performing, but he was allowed to sit on his phone or talk quietly until he was needed.

  
He was happy at CAPPA, here he was able to focus all his attention on Drama and Theatre Arts, no revision, no written exams as they were all practical. He was able to spend all his time doing something he loved.  
Louis walked into the year 12 assembly with Niall- who thankfully was on the technical theatre pathway so their timetables crossed- who was dressed all in black with ‘TECH CREW’ on the back of his t-shirt. Assemblies had calmed down since that first one, mainly they were just to let everyone know what was going on and only lasted about twenty minutes. 

Today was different though, next to Ms Kitcatt stood a tall gangly boy with long brown curly hair, he had tight skinny jeans on, a loose fitting Rolling Stones t-shirt which showed off an arm full of tattoos, and a pair of suede tan boots. He had rings on his fingers and the nail of the ring finger on his left hand was painted pink. 

“Good morning year 12, instead of having me speak to you I have Mr Styles, the lower school head boy, come to tell you what is happening in the next few weeks. Mr Styles?” 

“Yeah. Hi everyone,” his voice was deeper than Louis remembered “I’m Harry. So some of you are new here so you won’t know this… but every year on the last Friday of October before half term we do a thing called Pink Day.” He swept the hair that had fallen into his eyes as he looked down and coiffed it up.

The hall erupted into excited cheers around Louis as he sat there, confusion written all over his face. What the fuck was Pink Day?  
As if the younger boy had read his mind he continued “Now we have some new faces who are probably thinking ‘what the hell is Pink Day?’ and to answer that, Pink Day is a charity day CAAPA hosts every year on the last day of the first term. We dress up in pink and donate money to Breast Cancer Research UK. This year we have decided the theme is punks and rockers. Kind of fitting as we’re in the heart of the punk scene here in London.” 

…

“You ready for this Hazza?” Cara asked as she linked arms with him, she had dyed her hair a pale pink and had donned a crop top and a pair of shorts with knee length pink converse on her feet.

  
Harry nodded “Ready as I’ll ever be.” He smiled and looked down at his shirt, it wasn’t every day he was allowed to show off his chest tattoos which he loved so dearly, but with his pink polka dot shirt and tight skinny jeans, he needed it low to give off that old school rocker vibe.

  
Being on the team had its perks, this was one of the few days they were given off as they had to organise the day full of activities. The two of them lead the army of pink police, they were all given buckets, pink police helmets, pink fluffy handcuffs and whistles to cause havoc around the school. They barged in on lessons, ‘arresting’ those who hadn’t dressed in pink and escorting them out of class and collecting money in their buckets, chanting and yelling as they run through the corridors.

  
Then they enter the sixth form block, usually main school students aren’t allowed here due to the academics sitting mocks and the arts rehearsing for something or other. Today is different, today Harry and his team are allowed to disrupt the calm and create absolute chaos.

  
Harry winks at Cara just before they set off through the maze that is the sixth form house, they blow their whistles and bang their buckets with sticks they found in the garden.   
Harry cups his hands around his mouth and shouts “OGGI OGGI OGGI!” 

…

  
Louis is sat in the middle of a Shakespeare lesson, his teacher is going on about how Shakespeare wasn’t meant to be read, it was meant to be performed, flinging her arms around and explaining what she wanted the class, or as she called it, the company, to do. How she wanted two girls and two boys to get up and act out the scene in which Helena and Hermia are arguing, just after Puck puts the love spell on Demetrius.   
Louis is nearly half asleep when all of a sudden he hears a ruckus coming from the hallway and someone, a boy, shouting above it all.   
“OGGI OGGI OGGI!”

  
He shouts out “Oi Oi Oi!” at the top of his lungs which makes his class either laugh or look at him as if he’s lost his mind.  
In the next moment the classroom door is swung open to reveal a group of lowerclassmen dressed in pink helmets and odd costumes lead by a tall thin girl with bright pink hair and big blue eyes and a tall boy, Harry, Louis remembers, with dark brown curly hair and bright green eyes and, Louis looks closer, are they? No, they can’t be. Does this boy in front of his very eyes, who can’t be more than sixteen, have tattoos littered all over his body? Both he and the girl are littered in tattoos, they smile at each other and then split up, circling the class.

  
“AH HA!” the girl calls out as she gets to Louis. “You, my dear friend, are not wearing nearly enough pink!”

  
The class ooh as Harry walks up to him, standing to his left and the girl to his right. “Hmmm, I think you’re right, Cara.”

“What’s your name?” Cara asks Louis.

“Louis Tomlinson,” He replies looking between the two underclassmen.

“Well Louis Tomlinson, it looks like we’re going to have to arrest you... Hazza, cuff him!” This is followed by cheers as Harry stands the older boy up and cuffs him using his fluffy pink handcuffs which tickles Louis’ wrists. They then escorted him outside and down the corridor until they got to a quiet part of the building, “Well Louis Tomlinson, I believe you owe us some spare change as bail.” Cara says swinging a pair of keys on her index finger of her right hand. Louis laughed and shook his head, after being uncuffed he handed over some spare change.

“Well Louis Tomlinson, I believe you owe us some spare change as bail.” Cara says swinging a pair of keys on her index finger of her right hand. Louis laughed and shook his head, after being uncuffed he handed over some spare change.

“Well Mr Tomlinson,” Harry started “You are free to go!” Standing this close the older boy had to tilt his head slightly up to look the younger in the eye. Louis watched as Cara grabbed his hand and stood on tiptoes to hook her chin over his shoulder, her pink hair falling in her eyes under the bandanna. “Oh! Remember to come along to the Pink Day Catwalk at lunch today in the main hall!” That was the last thing Harry said before being pulled away and down the hall, once they were out of sight he could hear the noise start to pick up.

Louise sighed and rubbed his eyes. There were two things he was now certain of, one being he had a very serious crush on the tall gangly boy, and number two he was almost positive the younger boy was straight. 

…

As they dashed away from the new sixth former and had regrouped with the rest of the team Cara turned to Harry. “You fancy him.” She states rather than questions.  
Harry quickly whips his head round, luckily the noise the rest of the team is making drowns out Cara’s statement so that only Harry hears her. “What makes you think that?”   
The drummer laughs and runs ahead leaving Harry confused for a moment before picking up his speed. 

…

  
Louis goes to the catwalk, he expects it to be one of those experiences where, like everything else, it has a strict schedule and everything runs in an orderly fashion. It doesn’t. The main hall is alive and buzzing with students talking over each other, laughing and cheering. There’s music blaring from the surround system. Students and teachers alike queue up in small groups waiting to get up on stage.   
Harry and Cara are stood at the side of the stage dancing to the music and every now and then announcing the next group to walk the catwalk into the microphone that stands in between the two of them.

“Alright, guys!” Mr Yates, the head music teacher calls into the microphone. When did he take over Emceeing? “Now put your hands together and shout as loud as you can as your head boy and girl team take the stage for their walk!”   
At this the music changes to ‘Blame’ by Calvin Harris ft John Newman and the lights start flashing as the deputies run on stage with a short choreographed dance routine before bowing and parting for Harry and Cara who walk the runway with faux seriousness posing once they get to the end of the platform before breaking character and doing a quirky little handshake they had obviously done many times before hugging and being joined by the rest of their team. They do a short little dance before coming together and bowing.

Louis hears girls behind him talk about how attractive they find the head boy and how they are sure he and Cara are dating.  
Harry pulls a wireless mic from his back pocket and speaks into it as the music fades, he thanks everyone for a brilliant Pink Day and reminding people they have to go to their afternoon lessons. 

The music stops and the house lights are switched on showing the state of the hall as students exit and make their way to class, the hall is covered in pink, from pink feathers, to glitter to balloons. It is a mess.   
Louis shakes his head, even after being here for over a month he still hasn’t gotten over the chaos this school gets into, to be honest, he doesn’t think he ever will. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!  
> Also, don't expect all my chapters to come out so regularly ahaha! They will slow down once I go back to uni.


	3. All Hallows' Eve (This is Hallowe'en)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greetings and salutations,  
>  You are invited to a very VERY night full of Queen Bees and Wannabees. It’s going to be so fetch!  
> When: 31st October   
> Time: 20:00  
> Where: Casa de Styles  
> See you there, loser.   
> Cara and Harry xoxo
> 
> Or the one where Cara and Harry throw a Halloween party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR! Woohoo!   
> Sorry this chapter is late... it was a bitch to write... also had New Years and my birthday so I was pretty busy...   
> anyway, here is the next chapter. 
> 
> Extra brownie points if you can guess where the quotes are from.
> 
> Enjoy!

_Chapter Three_

 

_Are we gonna have a problem?_

_You got a bone to pick?_

_You’ve come so far,_

_Why now are you pulling on my dick?_

_I’d normally slap your face off,_

_And everyone here could watch._

_But I’m feeling nice._

_Here’s some advice._

_Listen up, biotch!-_

“Harrold if you don’t turn that fucking alarm off I am going to murder you in your sleep!” Cara groaned punching Harry in the arm before rolling over and shoving her face into the pillow. Three, that’s how many days Cara had taken up residence in the Styles house hold, her parents had gone to Paris for a long romantic weekend and Cara had arrived at Harry’s doorstep with her suitcase in hand and her drumsticks in her back pocket.

“Always so loving in the morning.” The younger boy retorts before swiping the alarm off. He stretches before getting out of bed and waddling out of the room to the bathroom to wee and to shower.

He’s naked, of course he is. Harry’s always been one to be more happy out of clothing rather than in them and at this point his family and friends are all aware this is how he is in his own home and are used to it. Especially Cara. Cara and Harry have been best friends since basically exiting the womb, their parents being very close friends since at school and although Harry didn’t move down to London until secondary school there were always dinner parties and birthdays and holidays shared between the Styles and Delevinge families. There were photos of the two of them bathing together and playing in the paddling pool when they were younger, the photos, of course, evolved from chubby children with gappy smiles where Cara was taller than Harry, to photos of them in matching Halloween costumes always pulling stupid faces into the camera, to now with the loss of the baby fat and with Harry a whole head taller still with huge smiles and matching outfits.

As Harry walks back into his room he is met with a face full of purple boxers, thankfully clean.

“Time to get dressed young Harold, we have exactly ten and a half hours before people start arriving!”

Halloween, the time of year you can dress up and no one can judge you for it. Every year Harry and Cara throw the biggest Halloween, it was exclusive, invite only with security on the door and throughout the house. The two of them had decided the theme was going to be Queen Bees and Wannabees.

She pulls out her phone and opens up her to do list for the day, checking off what’s already been done.

“So,” she starts “We’ve got the alcohol in the basement… thanks to Gemma. Security will be here at seven, people will arrive at eight… Surround sound system was set up last night, thanks to Liam and Niall.” She switched to her whatsapp sending a quick message and within thirty seconds her phone was buzzing with a reply “speaking of the boys, Ni, Li, Soph and Babs will arrive at five for dinner and prinks.”

That was their ritual, the six of them, sometimes seven if Ed could be dragged away from the recording studio, would get together at someone’s house. They would order pizza and chat before turning up the music and starting on their pre-drinks whilst the girls did their hair and makeup.

Harry nodded as he towel dried his hair standing in front of his wardrobe, he didn’t need to worry about looking presentable yet so he settled on a pair of black cotton tracksuit bottoms and an over-sized grey t-shirt, he tied his hair into a bun turning around to face the girl who lounged on his bed dressed in her favourite t-shirt of Harry’s, which happened to look like more of a dress than a top.

“So… you hungry?”

…

Louis sat on his bed staring at the piece of paper in his hand. An invitation to a Halloween party. Cara had zoomed past him on her penny board handing him a green envelope with black cursive that read out his name. Inside it read:

_Louis,_

_Greetings and salutations, you are invited to a very VERY night full of Queen Bees and Wannabees. It’s going to be so fetch!_

_When: 31 st October_

_Time: 8:00_

_Where: Casa de Styles (201 Prince Albert Road, Regent's Park, NW1)_

_See you there, loser._

_Cara and Harry_

He grabbed his phone and sent a text to Niall.

_To Nialler:_

_Yo, are you going to the Halloween party tonight?_

Not a minute later his phone buzzed with a reply.

**From Nialler:**

**Duh! Hazz and Cara always throw the best parties! What time you planning to get here?**

Here? Was he already at Harry’s house?

**From Nialler:**

**Harry said if you want you can come round for prinks and pizza, we’ve just ordered… come in something comfy and bring your costume in a bag.**

 After sending a quick okay, he grabbed his costume and shoved it into a rucksack along with some vodka and a few beers and made his way down stairs to where his mum was sat in front of the tv with his little sisters.

“Where you going love?” Jay asks looking up from where she’s Dutch braiding Fizzy’s hair.

“Halloween party, going to go get dressed at Harry’s.”

“Who’s Harry?”

“The boy whose party it is.”

“It’s the boy Louis fancies!” Fizzy butts in laughing.

“Oh?” Their mum laughs.

“No…  anyway Niall and others will be there.” The sixteen year old drifts off.

“I’m only teasing Poppet. Have a good night, I’ll see you when I get in from work tomorrow.”

After kissing his mum and sisters goodbye, he walked to the bus stop and jumped on a 274. Bus journeys were still something Louis was getting used to, he was still scared he would miss his stop and end up in the middle of nowhere. Tubes were still completely out of the question when he was on his own.

With the help of google maps he was able to find his way to the house. It was a lot bigger than he expected and it took him by surprise. It was a large white stone house with a black double front door, with quite a distance between this house and the others it was the perfect place to hold a party. From the outside it looked very intimidating.

Louis walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. He was met with a Harry dressed in oversized clothing and his hair up in a messy bun and what looked like two triangles of white stuff under his eyes.

He goes to say something when a great big grey Great Dane knocks Harry off his feet and right into the older boy.

“Oops!” He says as he tumbles into Louis arms “I’m so sorry!”

“Hi” Louis laughs and helps the other boy up.

“Gatsby!” Harry calls out “Get back here!” Gatsby strides back up to the two boys and sits at Harry’s feet. “Sorry about that, come on in.”

The three of them walk into the living room, a large room with wooden flooring and white walls, black leather sofas, everything that could break seems to have been taken out of the room. Gatsby strides past them and lays by Niall.

“Lou!” Niall calls from his seat on the floor sat in between Barbara’s legs where she is currently playing with his hair absentmindedly as she scrolls through her phone with the other hand.

“Ah, Mr Tomlinson you have arrived.” Cara says walking up to him and giving him an awkward hug where she doesn’t put her hands on him. “Sorry about the weird hug,” she wiggles her hands at him “I have foundation all over them and don’t want to get it all over you. Young Harold’s makeup is taking longer than expected.”

“That would explain the two triangles on his face.” He laughs.

“WHAT?!” Harry grabs the mirror from the coffee table which is cluttered with makeup “You let me answer the door with this shit on my face… you didn’t think to tell me that I had clown face?”

Cara laughs and sits back down on the sofa facing Harry grabbing the beauty blender and dabbing under his eyes.

“Pizza is by Liam, if they haven’t eaten it all. Wait have you met Liam?” Harry asks and Louis and Liam both shake their heads. “Liam is on the acting pathway but you can usually find him hanging around with the sports lot… nerd.”

“You got the role of the Odz in the panto this year, didn’t you?” Liam asks from where he’s sat with a girl cuddled under his arm. Louis recognises her as Sophia, a girl on the fashion design pathway in his year. Louis nodded at the question. “Sick! I got Endz!”

They spoke about the up and coming rehearsals for panto and seeing if the other had started learning their lines and marking the text yet. Louis also found out that Sophia was on costume design for the show and she was glad she could now ask questions to the two of them about what they were thinking for their costumes and rolling off question after question.

“Soph, calm down. We haven’t even started rehearsal yet. I’m sorry Lou, she gets overexcited sometimes.” Liam jokes putting his hand over his girlfriend’s face.

“Nah mate, it’s cool. How long you two been together?” Louis questions.

“Coming up to two years in December.” Sophia says removing her boyfriend’s hand from her face. “We’ve known each other since we were little, we were neighbours and then I moved to London to go to CAAPA and Li stayed in Wolverhampton-”

“But then,” Liam cuts in “I moved schools when I got scouted for acting… so I moved to London in year 9 and we bumped into each other after an assembly and we started talking. And then we finally got together New Year’s Eve when I plucked up the courage to tell her how I felt and ask her out.” He had a big dopey grin on his face after his little spiel and hugged Sophia tight to his side.

After pizza the group starts getting ready, the girls helping the boys with their makeup and hair. There was a steady flow of alcohol now and Cara had plugged her phone into the aux cable, Beyonce played from the speakers as Cara danced back to where she was fixing Harry’s makeup.

“Are you actually fucking kidding me!? No Edward, why?” Barbara was shouting into her phone. “No. That is not a legitimate reason for missing this party! Edward Christopher Sheeran!... No don’t you dare!... Fine, see you on Monday. Love you too.” She hangs up the phone before turning to the group of teenagers watching her. “Ed can’t make it… he’s been called into work.”

“Again? Why can’t they ever find someone else?” Liam says from across the room where Sophia has started on his makeup.

“We don’t have a full group now!” Niall exclaims.

“Louis, my dear.” Cara starts, taking a sip from the straw in her glass of snakebite (a concoction of cider, beer and blackcurrant juice). “What were you planning to dress up as for the party?”

“Uhh…”

“Have you ever seen the film Heathers?” She asks, Louis nodded. “Fantastic! We’re doing a gender swapped version of Heathers and we need you to be our Veronica.”

“What? Me?”

“Well of course, Ed was supposed to be our Veronica but he’s not here… do you have something blue?” Before Louis could respond Cara carried on “You can borrow one of Harry’s shirts. Harry is that okay?” Harry nodded and smiled. “Perfect! Go with Harry and he’ll get you the top, I have to go get dressed and make myself presentable.”

Harry unfolded his long legs and stood up from the sofa. “C’mon Louis, I’ll show you where my room is.”

Harry’s room was on the first floor, the walls were lined with posters of bands and photos of Harry with friends and family. It was tidy with a large king sized bed against the wall with a small British Bulldog puppy asleep at the foot of the bed. There was a desk with folders titled ‘REVISION NOTES: LAW, MATHS, ENGLISH LIT, ENGLISH LANG, SOCIOLOGY, SCIENCE, THEOLOGY & PHILOSPOHY, PE, MUSIC THEORY. Along with multi-coloured note books in a pile titled ‘Lyrics’. This made Louis smile. What did make Louis double take was the wall dedicated to Musical Theatre, from Kander and Ebb to Starkid, there were playbills and programmes stacked a meter high on the floor, posters of on and off West End and Broadway shows from Cabaret at studio 54 in New York with Alan Cumming, Billy Elliot at the Victoria Playhouse in London.

“What, no Lloyd Webber?” Louis asks walking over to where Harry is digging through his wardrobe. The younger boy turns to him looking confused. “Your wall dedicated to MT.”

“Oh! Ew no!” He starts “Why would I want that man on my wall? His lyrics are weak and he bores me.”

Louis smiles, this boy knew what he’s talking about. Back home in Doncaster Louis had been in several school productions including musicals, he was very close to auditioning for the musical theatre course at CAAPA but decided against it as he wasn’t about that dancing life.

“Never thought you’d be into the whole musical theatre thing… Cute dog by the way.”

“My mum took me to see my first West End show after my audition for CAAPA… Billy Elliot. I was ten. Fell in love with it then, I thought ‘how cool would it be to be able to do that every night?’ Oh thanks, that’s Winston. He shouldn’t really be on my bed. Naughty puppy.”

Louis smiled down at the sleeping puppy, who was more wrinkles than body. “Why didn’t you go into theatre or the MT pathway then?”

Harry laughs. “Please, have you seen me? I am all gangly, I can just about walk without tripping over myself and even I don’t always achieve that! And I don’t think I could do straight acting… I like singing too much.”

Harry went back to rummaging through his wardrobe. “Here, try this on.” He says holding out a blue denim shirt.

“Not very eighties is it?” Louis teases as he takes the top from Harry.

“We’re doing a modern twist on the classic… There we go! It actually fits you!”

Louis looks in the mirror, he rolls up the sleeves a bit showing off the tattoos on his forearms. “Don’t sound too surprised, I’m not that short.”

…

The guests start arriving around quarter past eight, Harry’s in host mode. Dressed in a red silk shirt and a pair of skin tight skinny jeans and heeled boots. Cara wanted to stick a scrunchy into his hair but he (not so) politely refused.

When they entered the party coming down the stairs he, Liam and Niall had made sure they were in perfect formation holding croquet mallets slung over their right shoulder.

People came dressed as popular characters from TV, film and theatre. Three girls Louis knew from the musical theatre pathway, Danielle, Twinnielee and Matea turned up dressed as Santana, Quinn and Brittany from Glee. Looking around the room you could see popular groups such as The Plastics from Mean Girls, and the Pink Ladies and T-Birds from Grease, to not-so-popular cliques such as the Inbetweeners. 

Louis was comfortably people watching by the stairs when Harry, with Niall and Liam standing slightly back, walks over to him with an irritated smile on his face.

“You alright, mate?” Louis questions.

“Are we gonna have a problem?” Louis looks at Harry, confusion written all over his face. “You got a bone to pick? You’ve come so far, why now are you pulling on my dick?” Louis doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve this. He looks around to see everyone has gathered round to hear what Harry is saying.

“I’d normally slap your face off, and everyone here could watch.” Harry gestures to the crowd “But I’m feeling nice. Here’s some advice. Listen up, biatch!” It takes Louis a moment to register that those are the opening lines Heather Chandler says to Veronica, the character Louis is dressed as, at the beginning of [Candy Store](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQOoTX1Nxx8).

The music starts and Harry, Niall and Liam fall into formation and start singing the song and performing to the guests at the party. It wasn’t until the end of the performance Louis noticed the mic stuck to Harry’s forehead.

“Hey, sorry for confusing you like that. I thought Car had told you what we were going to do.”

Louis shakes his head. “Had no idea, man. Thought I had done something wrong.”

The rest of the night went by in a bit of a blur after that, Louis remembers speaking to a girl called Olivia an American transfer in Harry’s year who was on the dance pathway and her boyfriend, Chase, who was in Louis’ year on the media pathway. He also remembers playing football out in the garden with some of the boys and girls in his year. What he doesn’t remember is how he ended up with a number written on his arm in red sharpie with Brianna written next to it. Or how he ended up on a bed cuddling a large dog in only his boxers.

Louis groaned and slowly got out of bed and walked over to his rucksack, pulling out his skinny jeans, a large oversized zip up Adidas hoodie and a grey knitted beanie. Why did he always drink too much at house parties?

After pulling on his clothes and sticking a piece of gum in his mouth he decided he was decent enough to exit the room, he walked down the stairs where he was met with the sound of music and sizzling. He stopped at the arch leading into the kitchen, Harry seemed to be in his own little world; dancing around the kitchen to the [Franz Ferdinand song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhCXAiNz9Jo) playing whilst in his black boxers and his hair in a bun, chopping up various ingredients and throwing them into the frying pan.

Louis cleared his throat, alerting Harry he wasn’t on his own.

“Good morning!” Harry said quietly, his voice still deep from being asleep.

“M’ning” Louis replied rubbing his eyes, which was a mistake as the pressure made him feel physically sick. “I feel like I’ve had tap dancers repeating a time step on my head over and over again, how much did I drink last night?”

Harry chuckled. “I kind of lost track of you somewhere between the Electric slide and the Time Warp… Tea?”

Louis nodded then gripped his head, stupid idea. “What time is it?”

“Nine. Milk? Sugar?”

“Just a dash of milk please. Why are you up so early?”

“Why are you?” Harry retorts putting a mug in the shape of Chip from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in front of him.

As Louis was about to reply the dog, a Doberman Pinscher, that had been curled up with him, walked into the kitchen and up to Harry.

“Hello boy.” Harry said bending down to give the dog his full attention.

“Another one?”

“Yeah, this is Ziggie.”

“As in Ziggie Stardust? David Bowie?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, Ziggie is my dog… Gatsby is my sister’s, she’s an English major at Sheffield. And the little ball of chub that you saw yesterday is my mum’s puppy. But in reality they’re all just family dogs and whoever is home at the time feeds and walks them and washes them.”

“No small dogs then?”

“Nah, Winston will grow into a big slobbery mess. Mum wanted a little terrier or something like that but we all fell in love with the little guy as soon as we met him.”

Louis smiled to himself as he watched the interaction between the younger boy and his dog. He was about to say something when Cara stalked into the room, dressed in an oversized shirt he guessed to be Harry’s.

“Morning sunshine.” Harry teased, standing to his full height.

“Don’t fucking speak to me.” The girl said pulling on a pair of large Vivienne Westwood sun glasses, this was the first time Louis had seen the younger girl looking anything other than pristine; her hair was in a messy ponytail which looks like it became loose due to sleep, there was still remnants of makeup smudged under her eyes, and she looked like she was about to rip Harry’s head off.

“Language! What would Julia and Lindy think?” Harry mock gasps, chuckling at the middle finger Cara throws him as he turns back to the food.  

“Who’s Julia and Lindy?” Louis asks.

“Julia Charteris and Lindy King are C’s agents.”

“I’m a big old supermodel.” Cara says with sarcasm dripping from her voice, walking over to the fridge. “Do we have any leftover pizza?”

“Wait, you are a model? How do you have time to be at school, let alone be head girl?”

“Spend the weekday at school then fly to wherever I need to be Friday night… Fly home on Sunday. Then cry when I have an eight thirty ballet class and I’m extremely jetlagged on the Monday.”

“What pathway are you based on?”

“Musical Theatre. I want to cry at the thought of doing grand adagio.”

“How do you two meet then?”

“Haz and I have practically known each other since the womb. Our mothers are best friends so it seemed only fitting that the two of us would be inseparable. I threw the biggest tantrum every time we had to part when we were younger, then he moved to London when we were eleven and we have been glued at the hip ever since.” Cara said taking a bite out of the pizza.

“When did you two get together then?” Louis asked. This was followed by two sets of eyes on him with blank expressions. “What?”

Both Harry and Cara burst into laughter at that. “You think me and Cara are dating?”

Louis nodded. Confusion written on his face.

“No! I mean, she’s gorgeous. But that would be like dating my sister.”

“Plus, y’know, wrong plumbing.” At this Harry snorts.

“Amazing.” He says shaking his head, turning his back on the two.

“Wait, you’re gay?” Louis can’t believe it, his luck might be changing.

Cara laughs, “He is… I, on the other hand, am not.” She drags her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, biting her lip and winking at Louis.

“Wow, you’re nice and all Cara but I’m one-hundred percent homo.”

Harry snorts again. “Cara behave.” He brings over three plates full of bacon, scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread, sausages, and baked beans. “Proper full English, perfect cure for a hangover.”

The three of them sit around the breakfast bar and eat in silence with the radio playing in the background. Louis couldn’t remember the last time he was able to sit and enjoy a quiet breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter!   
> As always you can find me on my tumblr: talkdancetome.tumblr.com
> 
> See you next time.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp... what did you think? let me know!


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